


if you see my ghost, tell her that i've left town

by bisexualklausmikaelson



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 18:22:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14526462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bisexualklausmikaelson/pseuds/bisexualklausmikaelson
Summary: au after 2x18/or Toni and Cheryl have enough of Riverdale and decide to go on a roadtrip (and never come back).





	if you see my ghost, tell her that i've left town

―

They pack their bags in the middle of the night.

Cheryl lifts her heels as she slips soundlessly into her mother’s room, taking some of her favourite jewels of all colors – periwinkle blue, aquamarine, emerald green – and stuffing them in her purse. If there’s one thing this woman has taught her, is that she was a Blossom. And Blossoms can always use their riches and titles to their advantage.

Toni looks up at the house she’s lived in her whole life. She curls her hair one last time in her bathroom, takes what’s left of the sandwich Sweet Pea made her earlier. She takes the silver chain with the Serpent sign she had stolen from Jughead, the drawing Fangs had made her when they were kids – the scarf her mother left her.

The redhead has the car all ready to go, turning the keys in the ignition of the car she’d gotten on her sixteenth birthday. The other girl watches her put her shaky hands on the steering wheel, wondering how long it will be before she decides to put her foot down and go.

Cheryl meets Toni’s gaze, and she hates it when she’s looking at her like that.

Almost as if she’s daring her to look away.

―

Toni counts the stars as they drive on.

She counts the lampposts, the road signs, the amount of times her girlfriend changes the radio station – one, two, three, four, five, nine, thirteen, twenty-two – and suddenly…they pass right by the sign that says that they’re now leaving Riverdale.

(And Cheryl doesn’t exactly know where they’re going – the only thing she knows for sure is that she’s not going to stop).

―

By the time morning comes, they’re still parked in the same empty lot from last night, where they had slept in the car.

Toni looks to Cheryl, wrapped up in an old blanket her grandmother must’ve knitted for her. She still has her hands on the steering wheel, toes just hovering over the gas pedal.

Maybe, she’s too afraid to let go.

Too afraid to think of ever going back.

(That day, Toni promises herself that they never will).

―

The moon is high in the sky when they stop by a coffee shop. Cheryl stays quiet and watches as Toni circles cities on a map and thinks of places they should go next.

Secretly, the redhead thinks that anything is better than where they’ve been.

―

They're heading in a straight line to somewhere and to nowhere, and, if anything, Cheryl thinks it's ridiculously romantic.

In New York, Toni has fun, but the lights are too bright and the crowds are too loud and sometimes, Cheryl thinks she’s getting a little too old for all of this. She’s seen the Statue of Liberty like countless times and been to Times Square so often that it feels like habit sometimes. She knows everything about all the art pieces in the Guggenheim and the Met (but the look on Toni’s face when she first sees it all changes everything).

In Los Angeles, they buy sunglasses in every color they can find and take silly pictures together. Toni is enthusiastic and picks up almost every hitchhiker on the freeway, claiming that if someone had done the same for her, her life would have turned out much better.

In New Mexico, the girls take turns driving and take turns getting tipsy on Margaritas. They listen to Mariachi bands, rock glittery sombreros, and do just about every clichéd touristy-thing possible.

(And they don’t think of Riverdale at all, not even for a little bit).

―

Toni ignores the messages left on her phone.

Sweet Pea asks her where she is in a worried voice – talking about how he woke up and saw that her bed was already made, and that a bunch of the food they had stashed away in their secret hideout was missing.

(Later he leaves another message, sounding angrier this time, with warnings about how he hopes she learns her lesson and never decides to leave her fellow Serpents behind again).

Jughead complains, in his usual posh and over-dramatic tone, that she oddly doesn’t find as annoying when he’s so far away. Actually, she misses him, even though sometimes, when he calls her…he’s drunk.

(Toni, please call me back. Betty is freaking out. Chic is insane. The black hood is back. My best friend is going to be part of a mafia. My life is a mess. Call me back).

Fangs is sweet but still firm in his tone ― If this is you trying to prove a point, he says, then yeah, point taken. We should’ve listened, should’ve treated you better, should’ve gotten rid of that stupid sexist serpent dance ―

Even FP has a few strict and selected words for Toni. And she doesn’t even bother listening to them, because she already knows what he’s going to say.

(Cheryl doesn’t say a word – not even about the fact that no one leaves a message for her).

―

Weeks turn into months and she tries to stay awake when Cheryl drives. Some deluded part of Toni thinks that maybe it would bring some sort of comfort to her. If the redhead stares out into the darkness with her tired eyes, she'd see the same ones staring back at her.

―

In a small diner, Cheryl waits tables for gas money while Toni works cash

They change their names in every city they go. In one place, they’re Bonnie and Clyde. (And yes, everyone complains to Toni about Clyde being a boy’s name but, she was beyond the limitations of gender roles, so she pays no mind to it). In another city, they call themselves Thelma and Louise, it suits them anyway.

This was never the life Cheryl Blossom thought she’d live – poor, on the run, with a girl who makes her see stars.

But, still, this is the life the redhead chose. And it’s the only thing in her life that feels like it’s ever been a choice for her, truth be told. Everything was always decided for her, was always predictable and tragic.

(Jason’s death, Nick St. Clair, being forced to go to conversion therapy―)

Not this one though.

This time, Cheryl did things on her own terms. And it felt damn good.

―

It takes Toni forever to decide that she’s going to chuck her phone in to the river

That night, she’s crying until her tears sweep into the sleeves of her sweater. Cheryl pulls over another ten miles down the road so she can throw up. She’s wiping her girlfriend’s mouth and pulling on her shades. She hits the gas as fast as she can go.

She can practically hear the entire town of Riverdale telling them that they’re being selfish bitches. She can hear herself replying to them that it’s called letting go.

(Midge’s murder was the last straw).

―

The pink haired girl writes in the journal she had stolen from Jughead.

While Cheryl is sleeping, while they’re waiting for their car to be washed, while they listen to jazz on the radio – the cover of the journal is something she never changes. It has the words this is Jughead’s, DO NOT STEAL written on it in bold letters, in his handwriting back when he was fourteen.

Toni doesn’t forget them completely, she keeps bits and pieces, as a reminder of where she’s from and who she is.

May she never forget.

―

Cheryl prefers to drive at night, and sometimes, Toni can hear her humming a tune that eerily reminds her of their old home.

Lollipop, lollipop, oh lolly lolly lolly―

She looks out the window and wishes the world weren't so quiet at 3am. She can hear nothing around her, but thinks it can't possibly match up to the silence filling up the space in her chest.

And Toni’s not even worried at how fast they’re going—it's when it all slows down that she finds her hand reaching out to cover Cheryl’s, and she thinks it brings her relief, the fact that she can control this car and nothing else.

Nothing but the stretch of road ahead and their fingers tangled together.

Sometimes when Cheryl slows down, Toni wishes she would pull over; stop driving and just talk to her. She wishes she could know if the other girl wants to go back or not.

Instead, she says, "Don't stop."

―

They stay in motels.

It’s always for short periods of time; a week, a day or two, and it’s for Cheryl’s sake. Toni’s used to being on the road, as part of a Serpents pack, she knows exactly how to take care of her own. But her girlfriend wasn’t like that.

She wanted a bed, a shower, some good food – a place where she can give Toni rough kisses to her lips. To pin her against a wall, to have her in the shower, to have her in any way she wants.

She wants to wake up to her face next to hers, to the sun shining down on her glistening skin, to breakfast in bed, to their limbs tangled together and Saturday morning cartoons and old cereal.

And it’s like…a dream.

An endless sleep.

―

Cheryl sells her mother’s jewels at the pawnshop.

When they’re broke, they plan heists, play the part of innocent girls and get freebies from strangers. Steal from grocery stores, rob the nearest Urban Outfitters by tricking them into thinking they haven’t ripped up the tags ―

They sneak in to the discount theater, make sex tapes, adopt a dog named Oliver for a short while.

Cheryl joins a book club, Toni takes cooking lessons.

And it’s like their lives have just begun.

―

In the end, Toni sits down and writes a letter to her Serpents. It sounds like some messed up romance novel, happily never after between two crazy girls and a cruel cruel world. She laughs when she’s done, because despite all the obstacles ahead of them, Cheryl and her were still good.

In fact, she thinks they’ll be okay.

And that’s enough for now.

―


End file.
